BY RICK LASKY
School emergencies have always presented their own list of obstacles for emergency personnel. The school bus involved in an accident presents us with the difficult task of locating a person “legally” responsible for the children. In the case of a serious accident, we do our job, treating and transporting the children, and often rely on the hospital staff to notify the families. It’s the accident with very few injuries, if any, that leaves us with a bus full of children without a responsible adult onboard capable of signing the ambulance crew’s releases. The good news regarding these types of incidents is that many fire departments and school districts have worked out solutions to this problem. Some allow the principal, a school teacher, or a school board member to take responsibility for the students. Other school emergencies still have to be addressed.
THE FIRE IN THE SCHOOL
Granted, we’re faced with a wide variety of emergencies at our schools, but one that has been around for a long time, the fire in the school, has always challenged us and the teaching staff when it comes to accounting for the students. When we conduct our fire drills, we ask that the occupants evacuate quickly in an orderly fashion and hope that when faced with the real thing, they will do just that. If anything, practicing the fire drills has helped reduce the chaos that can occur during these situations.
When it comes to student accountability, many fire departments have relied on the school and its staff to devise a plan or method for accounting for the students during emergencies and providing that information to arriving emergency units. Often, there are delays in verifying that all of the students are accounted for and that none are left in the building.
OUR SOLUTION: THE RED-GREEN CARD
When the fire alarm sounds, teachers arm themselves with an 8½- 2 11-inch card, which is green on one side and red on the other. A card or folded sheet of paper with the roster for that particular class is enclosed in a sleeve that is attached to the outside of the green side of the card. The emergency contact numbers for the students’ parents or guardians are on the back of the attendance card. After evacuating the building and assembling in a predesignated location, the teacher checks to verify that all the students are accounted for. Then, each teacher holds up the green side of the card if all of the students are accounted for, or the red side if a student(s) is missing. Arriving fire personnel can quickly verify if all of the students are out of the building and accounted for.
This program has proven successful. During a fire drill, one particular test most teachers dislike is our borrowing a student during the evacuation to check the accountability system. Since using the red-green card program, there have been no problems of teachers’ realizing that a pupil is missing and alerting the incident commander of that fact. Some of our schools are taking this program a step further and are using it to account for students in all emergencies. Another reason the program is so successful is that there is no cost to the schools. The fire department provides the cards free of charge.
We have seen vast improvement in evacuation times. At one school, evacuation time was cut in half. Meetings with school district principals and teachers have been very positive and have brought us even closer together as a team. Currently, our schools have been conducting incident command awareness and emergency preparedness classes. With the heightened concern about growing incidents of violence in schools, the schools are far better prepared. With the red-green card program, it is easier to account for students during emergencies. If a child is missing, we will know about it right away.
For further information on this program, contact the program’s creator, Engineer Kenny Gabriel, at the Coeur d’Alene (ID) Fire Department, at (208) 769-2340.
RICK LASKY, a 20-year veteran of the fire service, is chief of the Coeur d’Alene (ID) Fire Department. He previously was a battalion chief with the Darien-Woodridge (IL) Fire District. He is an editorial advisory board member of Fire Engineering and a member of the FDIC and FDIC West Advisory Boards.
